MIghty Avengers #15Review

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The fall of Hank Pym.

By Dan Phillips

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It's almost impossible to write about the latest issue of Mighty Avengers without comparing it to the issue of New Avengers that shipped alongside it this week. Both follow important superheroes that were replaced by Skrulls. Both consist of flashbacks to the crucial moment where the Skrulls pulled the old snatch and replace on a major hero. And both then proceed to unfold against the backdrop of recent stories in a way that clues us in on what was really going on all along.

The main difference between the two issues is that writer Brian Michael Bendis had far more story meat to work with in New Avengers than he does here, mostly because Jessica Drew's ties to SHIELD, HYDRA and the New Avengers make her far more integral to the Skrull's invasion than Hank Pym is. Thus, this Pym-centric issue doesn't have quite as many "ah ha!" moments as the latest issue of New Avengers, even if it still has quite a few.

Because Hank wasn't as intricately woven into Earth's power structure as Spider Woman, Bendis spends the majority of the issue focusing on the moments leading up to Hank's kidnap and replacement, as opposed to detailing just how the Skrulls used their Pym disguise to sabotage Earth. Bendis cleverly uses Hank and Janet Pym's volatile, on-again-off-again relationship to justify Hank's willingness to blindly fall under the spell of a female Skrull agent masquerading as an attractive young grad student. These scenes work well enough, but they're just not as powerful as the moments we see Skrull Hank in action. It's only later that we briefly see those acts of sabotage, which makes the issue more of a character study on the real Hank Pym than the series of startling revelations this week's New Avengers provided. Again, it's well crafted and entertaining, but not quite as awe-inspiring as the Spider Woman story.

John Romita Jr. provides the breakdowns for the issue, with frequent collaborator Klaus Janson joining Tom Palmer on finishes. The end product is somewhat strange for any fan of Romita Jr., as his unique sensibilities dominate certain panels and take more of a backseat during others. Because Romita's influence varies throughout the book, the art is rather inconsistent throughout. It almost feels like a sloppy, lesser effort from the great Romita, which, to be fair, is better than a book drawn by a vast majority of modern comic book artist. Regardless of how the book was constructed, what's important is that the art is just another area where this issue falls short of New Avengers #42.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but it's worth pointing out one more time just how superior these Avengers tie-ins have been to the main Secret Invasion mini. By using his Avengers books to detail all the intimate, character-driven moments of his plot, Bendis has sucked a lot of the complexity out of his main title. On the other hand, he's made the two Avengers books the most entertaining superhero comics on the stands. I'm not sure whether this is good or bad.